Abstract
This article presents preliminary results of the project on monitoring of landscape changes of the large-scale protected areas in the Czechia. Here, we focused on increasing human impact in the areas, especially on urban and recreational structures.
We prepared data describing development of landscape from 1950s till recent. Topographic maps and aerial images were used for fine-scale (0,2 ha) mapping of urban and recreational structures.
Based on the data we classified protected areas (PA) according to the human impact and analysed landscape fragmentation. For the classification we used K-means clustering in SPSS (IBM) and for fragmentation Effective Mesh Size approach.
Results show a significant increase of anthropogenic structures in the PA. PA in the central parts of the Czech Republic had larger growth of urban areas, on the other hand total extent of recreational areas increased more in the mountainous PA along the border.
Subsequently, the landscape fragmentation increased during the monitored period as well. Our results can be useful source for management planning of the PA to preserve their values.
In next steps an analysis with more detailed data e.g. intensity of use hiking trails could explore further relationships between human pressure and wildlife.